Some weekend reading for those who are interesting. There’s a lot here, but it looks worthwhile.

So I downloaded the Kindle app for the iPhone the other day to check it out. Yeah, it’s pretty cool. I don’t have a Kindle (yet), so I thought this might be a way to check out the iPhone/iPod Touch’s e-book technology. It’s good, I must admit. Supposedly these two things stay synced somehow, so that the Kindle will know where you left off, and the iPhone will also. Neat.

Along those lines, I’ve also been fooling around with Stanza, a free e-reader for the iPhone. They’ve got a desktop app that allows you to upload a bunch of different documents, including .pdf files, which I did last night. So far, I like it. And free is good too.

My wife is only days away from receiving her exciting new new-to-her Kindle, which is to say that I expect soon to get my hands on a Kindle 2. Meanwhile this note from a good friend about the machine’s effect in his household:

An (unreported?) Kindle phenomenon: 11-year old girl, drove parents crazy by not reading books because totally addicted to electronics, has now transferred total addiction to Kindle 2 – and now does nothing, ever, but read books, one after another. In bed, in the car, while eating – while crossing streets!

[My wife] says, “Let’s buy Amazon stock. In six months, the world will have discovered this particular phenomenon.” (She is the one who had the sudden insight that this might work for [our daughter].)

This from one of my favorite writers who blogs for The Atlantic Monthly magazine, from yesterday. Perhaps the Kindle and other e-readers will spark an interest in reading for some students? Having approached the issue of reading before, this one got me to thinking is all . . . .

Take a 60-minute lecture. Cut the excess verbiage, do away with most of the details, and pare it down to key concepts and themes.

What’s left? A “microlecture” over in as few as 60 seconds. A course designer for San Juan College, a community college in Farmington, N.M., says that in online education, such tiny bursts can teach just as well as traditional lectures when paired with assignments and discussions.

I found this article very interesting as it really seems to push the limits and ideas of ways to present material in an educational setting. I’d be interested in attending a class with this as the format. Rarely do I read about ways to move beyond our current system of education and this seems intriguing to me. Not that it is perfect, mind you, but it might fit the needs of some learners and some learning contexts well. Another article on this her at the Open Education Blog. Enjoy!

This looks like it could be another fine offering from Google. I just downloaded this and will be giving it a try before my workshop on using Google Earth in the classroom later this week. Enjoy!

1. Demonstrate a little bit. I started the day off with some demonstration of the basic tools that are in the new software. This took a little over an hour. My goal was to only take an hour so that I wouldn’t lose their attention and also so that we could have maximum time back in the classroom working.

2. Provide “play” time. I set up the workshop so that the majority of the time was spent with the teachers in their classrooms working with their SmartBoards. My experience has taught me that the one thing teachers need a lot of for learning technology is time. Time to try it out, experiment and play. Doing this allows each teachers to use their own learning style to come away with skills that they need at their own level. We spent 4 of our 6 hours doing this: playing, working, experimenting, creating.

3. Float. I floated while the teachers worked. I went from room to room to try and answer questions during the work time. I also had a portable phone with me so that the teachers could reach me whenever they needed to. This kept me very busy as each time I went into a room with teachers there were questions to answer.

4. Share. At the end of the day, we all came back and I asked the teachers to share something that they learned and discovered. I prepped them for this by letting them know ahead of time that we would have this time for sharing. I encouraged them to share what they learned, even if they thought it wasn’t that significant. The way I see it is that it might not be a significant item to someone else, but it is to them, so why not share with the group? So, we shared. We could have shared more, too, as this group was in a very sharing mood.

This format isn’t one that I will use always, but in this case, it worked very well. It is one to keep in my bag of tricks for doing Staff Development, too. Perhaps this will be helpful to you, too!

Public Domain Clipart optimized for word processors

File under: worth checking out.

Consider the above in times of budget cuts and trims . . . . .

via techcrunch-

This is a nice site for tracking the current storms that are poised to hit the Southeastern United States. It’s a good place to take students as well.

School has started–we’ve been busy (read: I’ve been busy). With the end of the summer, came a major slow down on blogging for me, but I will try to pick it back up again! That is the hope anyways. Life is always full, which is a very good thing. Now, it might be time to get out my umbrella or open my home up to my brother-in-law for whom our place is his evacuation point. He lives in Charleston, SC and will probably be required to leave at some point. Spontaneous guests are a good thing sometimes! I look forward to his visit, though not for the reason he is coming up.